


Flowers and Ink

by NikAdair



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Flower Language, Pre-Relationship, artist tadashi, regular patron kei, tattoo artist au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26109442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikAdair/pseuds/NikAdair
Summary: Asters generally were a symbol of love and affection. Purple ones specifically meant romantic feelings or love, or in some cases, ‘your heart and body belongs only to that person.’ It was a very intimate meaning, the way Tadashi saw it.Chrysanthemums were a little simpler. Their meanings were based on colour. In this case, red chrysanthemums meant love and deep passion. A very fitting definition for red flowers (which were the universal symbol of love), but even more so when paired with purple asters.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41
Collections: TsukkiYama Week 2020





	Flowers and Ink

**Author's Note:**

> Day Three of TsukkiYama Week! I went with the Artist prompt for this one, since tattoo artists are definitely artists.  
> So, not gonna lie, I have never read nor written a tattoo artist au, and I don't know a ton about how this stuff works, so I don't entirely know if I did it justice or not. But it was fun to write regardless.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Beta'd by Stella (thelittlebirdthattoldyou) and Ava (aloeverava). Thank you for beta'ing this!!

The familiar ring of the bell sounded over the door as Tadashi walked to the front of the shop, pulling off the gloves he’d been wearing. He frowned down at his hands, somehow having gotten ink on the edge of his wrists despite the gloves. It’d be a bit of a pain to clean later, but it really wasn’t much, so he wasn’t terribly concerned.

“Welcome to The Crows Corner,” he said, walking up to the corner, throwing the gloves away before looking up at whoever had actually walked in. He smiled at the familiar face. “Ah, Kei, welcome back.”

Kei smiled, leaning against the counter. “Had a free day and some cash, so I thought I’d stop in,” he said. Tadashi laughed, crossing his arms.

“And what can I do for you today?” he asked, eyeing the tattoos littering Kei’s arms. Several flower designs ran up the right one -- ones Tadashi knew by heart, since he’d been the one to do them -- and a few crow related ones on the left. Those ones had been done by Hinata, though he definitely didn’t hear the end of the ‘energetic tangerine’ as Kei put it afterwards.

He watched Kei rifle through his backpack, pulling out a neatly folded sheet of paper. “I was thinking something like this?”

Tadashi took the paper, unfolding it and smoothing it carefully on the counter. On it was a cluster of purple asters with a red chrysanthemum nestled in the center. The asters’ petals overlapped with each other, the only indication that there were several flowers there being the golden centers.

He laughed a little as he blushed furiously on the inside. Tadashi, for all his bravado and tattoo prowess, had studied flower language along with tattoo artistry. To him, flowers were organic, simple, but far more meaningful than people gave them credit for. He had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of what various ones meant, from basic meanings to meanings by numbers to meanings by colours.

Asters generally were a symbol of love and affection. Purple ones specifically meant romantic feelings or love, or in some cases, ‘your heart and body belongs only to that person.’ It was a very intimate meaning, the way Tadashi saw it.

Chrysanthemums were a little simpler. Their meanings were based on colour. In this case, red chrysanthemums meant love and deep passion. A very fitting definition for red flowers (which were the universal symbol of love), but even more so when paired with purple asters.

But along with the knowledge of flower meanings, Tadashi was also very aware of which flowers were paired with birth months (a very obscure piece of knowledge to know, but you could tell a lot about someone based on their birth flower). Asters were a symbol of the month of September, and chrysanthemums were a symbol of November.

He didn’t know if it was coincidence or not, but those happened to be the same months that his and Kei’s birthdays were in (he only knew this because Kei had first come in on his 19th birthday, saying it was a gift to himself, and it had led to Tadashi telling him when his own was). He looked up at Kei to see him a little red faced and pointedly looking away, and something flipped in his stomach.

“I think we can definitely get this done. Any specific place you were thinking?” Tadashi said, thankful that his voice was steady despite the million thoughts that were flying through his mind.

He definitely tried not to let it show when Kei pulled the collar of his tee back, pointing -- rather red faced, he might add -- below his left collar bone. “I was thinking here?”

Tadashi nodded, holding the paper up next to his chest. “We’ll have to shrink it down a little to fit, but that’s definitely doable. You’re more than welcome to sit in the back while I get it shrunken if you’d like.”

Kei nodded and walked around the corner, heading down the hall to Tadashi's studio while he went to the side office and scanned the picture, taking a minute to calm his thoughts. “It doesn’t mean anything, Tadashi. He probably doesn’t even know what they mean, just that they look nice together. Get ahold of yourself.”

It didn’t help much, his thoughts straying to the fact that Kei -- the man he’d had a crush on for quite a while -- was asking him to tattoo flowers --  _ their _ flowers -- basically over his heart. He felt his face flush and pushed those thoughts away. Work was not the place to be thinking about that.

He took the resized print out and walked back to his studio. Kei was perched on the chair, flipping through one of the art books that Tadashi had sitting on a bookshelf near the wall. The cover was filled with doodles and swirls with the name “YAMAGUCHI” drawn over them in big bubble letters. It was definitely one of his earlier art books -- the one filled with cartoony caricatures from when he’d experimented with his art style.

“I see you’ve found one of the cringier books,” Tadashi said, causing Kei to jump and look at him. He chuckled, walking around the chair and towards his inks.

“I don’t know how after years of coming here I haven’t seen this one,” Kei said, flipping a page rather dramatically. Tadashi rolled his eyes, pouring inks into small plastic containers.

Base colours and darker shades for the petals and centers. Lighter shades and whites for the highlights. “I was pretty sure that one was packed away for the exact reason of not having anyone see it.”  _ Of not having you see it. _ He shook that thought away, coming back with a tray of ink filled containers.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or be offended that you tried to hide this from me. These are wonderful.”

“Wonderfully horrendous maybe. Thank god I didn’t stick with it. I’d probably have been tossed on the street without a career,” Tadashi said a laugh, holding a hand out for the book.

Kei looked up at him, laughing. “I doubt you’d end up without a career. There are people that like this style, you know.” He handed him the book, and Tadashi tossed it back towards the book shelf.

“Oh, I’m sure there are. But let’s be fair, the flower designs are much better than those…  _ things _ .” Kei laughed again and Tadashi smiled. “You ready?”

He gestured to the picture in his hand and then at his shirt, for some reason feeling really embarrassed about saying ‘I need you to take your shirt off now.’ It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that he had a massive crush on him. Definitely not.

Kei’s face flushed and he stammered, opting for taking his shirt off instead of trying to speak. Tadashi made sure to hide his blush while he applied the tattoo transfer (he did give himself a second to admire the fact that Kei was muscled and fit, though). He felt Kei shiver a little underneath him as he smoothed the sheet over his skin.

“Sorry about that,” Tadashi said, pulling the paper away and looking at the purple outline left in its wake. He handed Kei a hand mirror. “Does this look good?”

“It looks perfect,” he said, looking at it in the mirror. A smile tugged at Tadashi’s lips, and he turned away, busying himself with getting the tattoo gun ready.

“Alright, let’s get this started then, shall we?”

-.-.-

He wasn’t surprised to find that the tattoo ended up taking much of the afternoon. By the time everything was said and done, the sun was starting to set, bleeding red and orange into the shop. Tadashi wiped away the last of the extra ink and handed Kei the mirror again. “One last look before it gets covered.”

Kei took it and his eyes widened. “Tadashi, oh my god, this looks absolutely gorgeous,” he said in a soft voice. Tadashi’s face flushed from the compliment, and he laughed a little.

“You say that about every tattoo I give you. I’m starting to think you don’t really know how to compliment something,” he said teasingly. Kei looked up at him, giving him a look.

“I know how to compliment something, thank you very much,” Kei said, trying to hide a smile.

“Sure you do, Mr. Absolutely Gorgeous.” Kei looked up at him, wide-eyed, and it took Tadashi a second to realize what he’d said. “I didn’t-- I mean--”

Kei started laughing, and Tadashi’s face burned. “I can’t believe you just said that,” he said between laughs. Tadashi started pouting, but it didn’t last long before he started laughing too.

“In my defense, what I said is true,” he said, very much aware of what he’d said that time. It got Kei to stop laughing as well as going as red as he was.

Tadashi just smiled at him, leaning into his space to apply the dressing. He could feel Kei’s eyes on him. Could tell that he was trying to figure out something to say. When he leaned back, he saw his eyes still watching him.

“Tadashi,” Kei said, his voice hesitant. He froze. In the time that he’d known Kei, hesitant had never been something used to describe him. “Would you want to go to dinner sometime?”

His mind blanked. Any thoughts that had been racing through it had disappeared. He couldn’t even think of an answer to give him. Tadashi just sat there, staring at Kei in stunned silence.

“Sorry, that was inappropriate of me. Thank you for the tattoo,” Kei said quickly, fumbling to stand. “I’ll just see myself to the front counter.”

That broke Tadashi from his daze. He stood, grabbing his arm, making Kei stop and turn towards him. “I would love to, Kei,” he said softly. Kei’s whole body relaxed, and he smiled. “We can go tonight after I’m off, if you want. It’ll only be another hour or so.”

“I’d like that,” Kei said, smiling back.

“Cool.” Tadashi let go of his arm. “And put a shirt on. You’re really distracting.” Kei laughed, sticking his tongue out but putting his shirt on.

“You know you like it,” he teased.

Tadashi shoved him a little and laughed, his face breaking out into an embarrassed smile. “You’re not wrong, but you didn’t have to say it.”


End file.
